Award-winning documentary to be shown at Palace Theatre

SYRACUSE  GreeningUSA will bring “Chasing Ice”, a 75 minute documentary by James Balog, National Geographic photographer to The Palace Theatre, 2384 James Street. Doors open 6:00 p.m on April 22, Earth Day.

Immediately following the film, a Climate Impacts and Actions in CNY panel presentation will explore the documentary's environmental implications from a local perspective. The panel will consist of Dave Eichorn, syracuse.com meteorologist; Chris Carrick, Energy Program Manager for the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board; and Yvonne Rothenberg, Founder of the CNY chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby. Moderating the panel will be Chris Bolt, WAER news and public affairs director.

The film follows nature photographer James Balog as he documents melting glaciers in Alaska, Iceland, Greenland and Montana. Using time-lapse cameras, his videos compress years into seconds and capture ancient mountains of ice in motion as they disappear at a breathtaking rate. Called the Extreme Ice Survey, Balog sets up still cameras that have been programmed to take a picture, once every hour, for three years, of the same glacier, from a fixed spot.

The scale of the glaciers, and the almost hallucinogenic clarity of the images make the resulting footage, based on three years' shooting, most impressive. One piece of ice we see breaking off is said to be the size of lower Manhattan.

The visuals are riveting, and they drive home the point that the film makes in voice over narration by Balog, interviews with glaciologists and climate scientists and occasional charts and graphs: Ice is melting at an alarmingly unglacial pace.

Ticket prices at the door: $10 for adults, $5 for seniors and students and free for children 12 and ounder. Advance sale tickets for adults are$7. For advance sale tickets, visit greeningusa.org/chasing-ice/. For information on how to help sponsor this event, call 422-8276 ext. 204.